1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to selecting an image forming apparatus, from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses, that has enough remaining toner, and performing printing on the image forming apparatus selected.
2) Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001 100956 discloses a system where a plurality of image forming apparatuses, such as digital copiers, are connected to each other via a network so that the image forming apparatuses can perform intercommunication. An efficient utilization of memory devices and improved productivity of a system, for example, can be achieved on this system by detecting a state of use of memory devices of the image forming apparatuses in the system and by suitably allocating the memory devices to be used for a job.
However, if the conventional system includes color image forming apparatuses, and, an image forming apparatus, which is a master machine, allocates a job to another image forming apparatus, which is a slave machine, and, the slave machine has insufficient toner of a particular color, then accurate to an image data cannot be obtained.
In other words, whether the slave machine has enough toner is an important factor. In other words, if a specific toner is exhausted, the availability of printable colors is changed. Therefore, the printable colors will differ according to each mode and link to the image forming apparatus (master machine) and the status of remaining toner in a linked image forming apparatus (slave machine). In addition, the printable colors differ because the consumption of toner is different according to the original document to be copied.